University studies should train future professionals who would be capable of solving global problems and understand them in the context of other sciences, and who would be professionals-generalists actively participating and creating, successfully surviving in multicultural communities, and capable of independently changing their professional identity (R. Barnett, 1999, 2003; G. Delanty, 2002; R. Williams, 2003; M. Nusbaum, 2003,  2009;). This mission of a university directly depends on the effectiveness of the educational environments created at the university, i.e. on how these environments meet the students’ concrete learning needs and motivate them for a successful learning activity with the predominant deep approach to learning. The deep and the superficial approaches are related not only to the students’ direct immersion into a concrete learning task, but also in general to the learning values that the students deem acceptable, important, and motivating. According to Ramsden (2000), the relationship between attitude and satisfaction with learning is a bidirectional one. The attitude determines the level of satisfaction and immersion into the activity.

 Knowing the attitude helps to understand students’ concrete learning needs and to create an effective educational environment. This is especially relevant when the educational environment involves students with different cultural background – i.e. those studying in their home country and those arriving from other countries. Such educational environment where students’ attitude to learning is affected by their cultural differences should be characterized by special flexibility and non-traditional pedagogical decisions.

Research question:

The article strives to answer the question of how the peculiarities of students’ attitude to learning could be used for the creation of a successful learning environment. The subjects of the study were Lithuanian and foreign students of Odontology.

Objective: to reveal the peculiarities of the attitude to learning among students of different cultural background as possibilities for the creation of the educational environment;

Purpose:

1.      To discuss theoretical aspects of the peculiarities of the attitude to learning among students of different cultural background,

2.      To identify the predominant attitude to learning among Odontology students of different cultural background,

3.      To identify the peculiarities of the attitude to learning, and to associate them with possibilities for the creation of the educational environment.

Conceptual or theoretical framework

The work is based on theoretical positions that highlight constructivist concepts, the preconditions for the emergence of deep learning, educational environments favorable for problem-based learning, and the specificity of modern learning and higher education (Delanty, 2002; Nussbaum, 2003; 2009; Ramsden, 2000; Petty, 2006; 2008; Barnett, 1990; 1999; 2003; Jucevičienė, Lipinskienė, 2001; Jucevičienė, Gudaitytė ir kt., 2010; Kraujutaitytė, 2002; Šveikauskas, 2005; 2008, etc. ).

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